John Mackey Dies at 69; Helped Revolutionize N.F.L.

John Mackey of the Baltimore Colts was the prototype of the big and fast N.F.L. tight ends of today.Credit
Associated Press

John Mackey, who bowled over defensive linemen and streaked past pass defenders as one of the N.F.L.’s greatest tight ends, then fought against free-agency restrictions as the president of the league’s players union, died on Wednesday in Baltimore. He was 69.

His death was announced by the Baltimore Ravens, the successor franchise in that city to the Colts, for whom Mackey starred as the prototype of the current-day tight end. He had dementia, which his wife, Sylvia, believed was most likely caused by football collisions.

In May 2006, Mrs. Mackey wrote to Paul Tagliabue, the N.F.L. commissioner at the time, telling of her husband’s decline and the financial ruin that her family faced, and noting there were other families of former players similarly stricken who shared the Mackeys’ plight.

The N.F.L. and its players union responded by creating the 88 Plan — named for Mackey’s number — which provides up to $88,000 a year for care and treatment of former players with dementia.

Mackey was named to the N.F.L.’s 50th anniversary all-star squad. Playing for the Baltimore Colts (now the Indianapolis Colts) from 1963 to 1971, and then a final season with the San Diego Chargers, he changed the way teams ran their offenses.

“Previous to John, tight ends were big strong guys like Ditka and Kramer who would block and catch short passes over the middle,” Don Shula, the Colts’ Hall of Fame coach of the 1960s, told The Baltimore Sun, referring to Mike Ditka of the Chicago Bears and Ron Kramer of the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers.

Photo

The Hall of Famer was one of the N.F.L.'s greatest tight ends and was president of the players' union.Credit
Baltimore Colts, via Associated Press

“Mackey gave us a tight end who weighed 230, ran a 4.6 and could catch the bomb. It was a weapon other teams didn’t have.”

In January 1970, Mackey was named president of a newly organized players union, which included members from both the old N.F.L. clubs and the American Football League teams that had joined the N.F.L. in the leagues’ merger. He drew on a personal encounter in his determination to change the way players were treated.

“My name has long been associated with the cause of free agency in the N.F.L.,” Mackey wrote in The New York Times in 1992. “What most people don’t know is that my commitment stemmed mostly from one incident in the N.F.L. in which I was handed a piece of paper, a contract, and was told to sign it. Of course I didn’t, and from that moment of youthful pique evolved the fight by N.F.L. players to choose for whom they work.”

Mackey led a brief players’ strike during training camp in 1970 that led to a contract providing increased benefits and pensions for players. But he was best remembered as a union leader for a federal suit filed against the N.F.L. in 1972 challenging restrictions on free agency.

The suit sought to overturn what was called the Rozelle Rule, in which the N.F.L. commissioner, Pete Rozelle, could award compensation to teams losing a free agent. In what became known as the Mackey case — he was one of the players who brought the suit — a federal judge found that the Rozelle Rule was an illegal deterrent to free movement. In a negotiated settlement, the league agreed to pay $15.8 million in damages to players under contract in the early 1970s.

In his Colts uniform, Mackey was an outstanding blocker. He could drag tacklers across a goal line after catching a pass and, most spectacularly, could snare long passes, then race for touchdowns. In 1966 he scored six touchdowns on pass plays of more than 50 yards.

His most memorable play came in the 1971 Super Bowl, when a pass by Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas went off the fingertips of a Baltimore receiver and a Dallas Cowboy defender into his hands. Mackey ran to the end zone, completing a 75-yard play. The Colts defeated the Cowboys, 16-13, on a field goal in the final seconds.

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Mackey, long an advocate for free agency, was in 1970 named president of the newly organized players union.Credit
Eddie Hausner/The New York Times

But it was not until 1992, in the 15th and final year of his eligibility, that Mackey was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Speculation in the news media suggested that Mackey’s role as union president may have irked some members of the voting news media who sympathized with management.

John Kevin Mackey was born in New York City on Sept. 4, 1941, and grew up in Roosevelt, on Long Island, one of seven children. His father was a Baptist minister. He played at Syracuse University, where he was a teammate of the Heisman Trophy-winning halfback Ernie Davis, who died of leukemia at age 23.

Mackey (listed by the Hall of Fame as 6 feet 2 and 224 pounds) joined the Colts as a second-round draft pick. He became a key member of a Colts offense that included the future Hall of Famers Unitas, Raymond Berry at wide receiver, Lenny Moore at halfback and Jim Parker at guard and tackle.

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Mackey was a five-time Pro Bowl player and an all-league tight end for three consecutive years, from 1966 to 1968. He caught 331 passes for 5,236 yards and 38 touchdowns in his 10 seasons and was the second tight end inducted into the Hall of Fame, after Ditka.

In addition to his wife, of Baltimore, Mackey is survived by a son, John, of Atlanta; his daughters Lisa Hazel of Bowie, Md., and Laura Nattans, of Baltimore, and six grandchildren, The Sun said.

In an era of multimillion-dollar contracts nearly 40 years after Mackey’s playing career, the Ravens’ general manager, Ozzie Newsome, like Mackey a Hall of Fame tight end, spoke of his legacy.

“All of the benefits of today’s players come from the foundations laid by John Mackey,” Newsome told The Sun. “He took risks. He stepped out. He was willing to be different.”

A version of this article appears in print on July 8, 2011, on Page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: John Mackey Dies at 69; Helped Revolutionize N.F.L. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe